Baghdad Planning to Liberate Mosul: Iraqi PM
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – After the liberation of Diyala province, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced that his government is planning to cleanse Mosul of ISIL terrorists.
The planning for conducting operation to liberate Mosul is going on well, al-Qadir TV quoted al-Abadi as saying on the sidelines of World Economic Forum in the Swiss city of Davos.
“A battalion has already been formed and its commander and deputy commander are assigned,” he underscored, adding that necessary resources are allocated, and local volunteer forces are being recruited to flush the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorists out of the Northern city of Mosul.
Al-Abadi, however, said that wiping off ISIL terrorists “may take several months”.
His remarks came after the head of Iraq’s Badr parliamentary bloc announced on Saturday that the government troops supported by popular volunteer forces have thrown the ISIL terrorists out of the eastern province of Diyala.
Iraq has been facing the growing threat of terrorism, mainly posed by the ISIL terrorist group.
The ISIL militants made swift advances in much of northern and western Iraq over the summer, after capturing large swaths of northern Syria.
However, a combination of concentrated attacks by the Iraqi military and the volunteer forces, who rushed to take arms after top Iraqi cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani issued a fatwa calling for fight against the militants, have blunted the edge of the ISIL offensive and led to the liberation of many towns and villages.
